LOL... So one bad year determines a career, huh?? I really wish I had your insight, especially when the debate was Jeter vs Nomar? I will grant you that as of now Pedroia is a better player, especially with his likely MVP award coming. However, like I said before, Cano's 2 best seasons are better than any season Roberts & Kinsler have ever had... As bad of a year as Cano has had (along with every position player on the Yankees for that matter), you simply can't dispute that... Have fun in the playoffs...

If you say so Jon... Like I said earlier, Cano isn't fast and he doesn't take walks so putting him at the top of a line-up is just bad baseball. Damon & Jeter are ideal 1 & 2 guys. After that you have Abreu, A-Rod, & Giambi who are all .400 on base guys when they're right. So tell me why would you put Cano in any of those slots? Like jtk4 said, his value is lower in the order. How many players can hit .300 / 20hr / 100 rbi's in the 9 hole? If you gonna say the Yankees line-up is/was stacked, well so are the Red Sox, Tigers, & Rangers... How come their 9 hole guys can't do that? "No range" Cano 1 for 1 off Beckett and started a sparkling dp in the 2nd... I know you saw that Jonny boy...

On Kinsler: Kinsler bats leadoff and gets protected by guys like Young, Bradley, & Hamilton. Cano gets protected (if you can call it that) by Melky, Molina, & Gardner... On past teams he batted 8th or 9th so it's not the same comparison... Put Cano in front of Jeter, Abreu, & A-Rod and his numbers would be off the charts. Cano just doesn't walk enough and doesn't have the speed so it's a bad fit... On Pedroia: And your putting him there after barely 1.5 yrs... You should know better than to annoint players in the middle of seasons. You saw what happened when you praised Roberts & dismissed Cano last May and how did that end up? You still didn't address how Pedroia has benefited from hitting in front of argueably one of the greatest hitting duos of all time...

Kinsler? Besides a good half season, what exactly has Kinsler done to be a part of this conversation?? The fact that he hits leadoff in a bandbox with the best offense in baseball behind him inflates his status a tad... Pedroia? While he's a quality player, I think we need more than a 1.5 yr sample size before we bring him into any "best of" discussions... Besides wouldn't be fair to say that some of his production is due to hitting in front of Manny & Papi (when he's healthy)? Bottom line is that Cano's two best years are better than any single year Kinsler, Pedroia, or Roberts had had in the big leagues. The amazing part about it is that he seems to give those other guys a three month start on compiling stats each year. Yet at the end of the year he pulls it together (in the stretch run when his team needs him the most) and makes it looks easy. If he ever started a season off hot like Roberts does, this wouldn't even be a debate... Basically the only knocks you got on him are that he doesn't walk (which leads to a lower obp & ops), and he doesn't steal bases... As he matures (he's still only 25), he'll learn to be more selective....

LOL... You always bring this up mid-season when your boy jumps out to an early lead... Like last year when he had a .080 lead in batting average that he somehow managed to lose in the second half. I think it's safe to say that Roberts is a fast starter while Cano is a strong finisher. Lets see how they finish the season before we jump to any conclusions...